Williamsport is a place name in Onekama Township, Manistee County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is located on the southwestern shore of Portage Lake at 44°21′30″N86°15′50″W / 44.35833°N 86.26389°W . [1] and had its beginning in about 1871 when a channel was dug connecting Portage Lake with Lake Michigan. [2] The place name has been used on maps of Michigan since 1871 and throughout the 20th century, although no town ever developed.
Onekama Township is a civil township of Manistee County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 1,514 at the 2000 census.
Manistee County is a county located in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the population was 24,733. The county seat is Manistee. The name "Manistee" is from an Ojibwe word first applied to the principal river of the county. The derivation is not certain, but it may be from ministigweyaa, "river with islands at its mouth". See also, List of Michigan county name etymologies and Kaministiquia River.
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are currently 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory and shares its sovereignty with the federal government. Due to this shared sovereignty, Americans are citizens both of the federal republic and of the state in which they reside. State citizenship and residency are flexible, and no government approval is required to move between states, except for persons restricted by certain types of court orders. Four states use the term commonwealth rather than state in their full official names.
The place takes its name from the steam tug Williams, which was the first vessel to enter the man-made cut on 15 May 1871. Landowners around Portage Lake made the cut in opposition to the owners of Portage Mill at Portage Point, who persisted in raising the level of the lake and flooding their lands.
Portage Point is an unincorporated summer resort area of Onekama Township, Manistee County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It includes the site of the first town on Portage Lake at 44°21′43″N86°15′42″W It is located on the narrow strip of land between Portage Lake and Lake Michigan developed by the Portage Point Association. A post office operated in summers from August 1917 until September 1921.
The first supporters to develop Williamsport was A. T. Shanks, who was granted a license in June 1871 to operate a ferry across the channel for a period of ten years, charging five cents a person, fifteen cents for each horse and person, twenty cents for each person, horse, and wagon, and twenty-five cents for a two-horse conveyance.
William Shanks and his wife Annie operated a boarding house and picnic grounds at the site of Williamsport and platted their homestead land as a village. A saw mill was built at the site, but it burned shortly after construction and was never rebuilt. With the move of the village from Portage Point to the present location of Onekama at the northeastern end of the lake made the Shankses' plans for the development of Williamsport.
Onekama is a village in Manistee County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 411 at the 2010 census. The village is located on the shores of Portage Lake and is surrounded by Onekama Township. The town's name is derived from "Ona-ga-maa," an Anishinaabe word which means "singing water." Some local business people have produced sweatshirts, T-shirts, and bumper stickers with the symbols "1,", a common mispronunciation.
